Sweden: Swedish banks fined over lax anti-money laundering controls

Two of Sweden’s leading banks were fined and heavily criticised over their lax anti-money laundering controls, undermining the reputation of some of the best-regarded lenders in Europe.

Nordea, the leading bank in the Nordic region, was subject to the most swingeing comments from Sweden’s financial regulator, which noted that there was a high probability that “if people have tried to launder money or finance terrorism, they could have done so without Nordea having been able to detect this”. It was fined SKr50m, the maximum under the law in force at the time.

Handelsbanken, hailed by many analysts as the blueprint for European banking, was fined SKr35m after failing to conduct risk assessments for all customers, leading to a high risk it could be used for money laundering.